Simi Valley May Sue to Stop Porter Ranch Plan : Development: A large new project in nearby Chatsworth would create tremendous traffic and pollution in neighboring communities, officials say.

Simi Valley officials, reacting angrily to the Los Angeles City Council’s approval of a massive housing and commercial development in neighboring Chatsworth, said Wednesday that they will probably file a lawsuit to try to block the project.

“I don’t think the fight is over yet,” Vice Mayor Glen McAdoo said of the $2-billion Porter Ranch development, one of the largest new housing projects in Los Angeles history.

McAdoo said the project, approved by the Los Angeles City Council Tuesday by a 14 to 0 vote, would create tremendous amounts of traffic and pollution for Simi Valley and other neighboring communities.

McAdoo said Simi Valley officials sent a letter to Los Angeles city officials a month ago, outlining their objections to the project and what they said were deficiencies in the environmental impact report.

“The next course of action is a legal challenge to the document,” McAdoo said, adding that the traffic mitigation measures proposed in the report “are totally inadequate.”

Council members Bill Davis and Vicky Howard said they will support a lawsuit to block the project. Mayor Greg Stratton and Councilwoman Ann Rock are both on vacation and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Officials said the Simi Valley Council will address the issue at its next meeting, scheduled for July 23. The council is on a three-week summer break.

“I think they’re making a terrible mistake,” Howard said of the Los Angeles City Council’s endorsement of the project. “It’s extremely poor planning. It’s such a dense project . . . I think it will totally clobber the Simi Valley Freeway,” which is already burdened with heavy traffic generated by Los Angeles and Ventura County commuters, she said.

The environmental impact report says the Porter Ranch development will generate an additional 150,602 vehicle trips per day in the surrounding area.

Howard said one option for the city would be to join in a lawsuit with PRIDE, a San Fernando Valley homeowner group that has battled to halt the project.

Roger Strull, leader of the 600-member homeowner group, said officials of the organization will meet tonight to decide their next course of action. He said he welcomed the proposal of filing a joint lawsuit with Simi Valley.

“If we all join together, we will be much more powerful,” Strull said, adding that Simi Valley will be among the communities that will suffer the most from the project. “We applaud their interest, their concern and their fortitude.”

The Porter Ranch development will include 3,395 residences and 6 million square feet of commercial space that will accommodate several 10-story office buildings, a hotel and a regional shopping center.

The project, which still needs the signature of Mayor Tom Bradley, would be built on a 1,300-acre site at the northwest end of the San Fernando Valley, just across the Santa Susana Pass from Simi Valley.

Paul Clarke, a spokesman for Porter Ranch Development Co., said the project will benefit Simi Valley by providing thousands of jobs nearby, which he said would reduce traffic and pollution.

“A large part of the problem is that there is not a sufficient number of jobs in Simi Valley,” Clarke said. “They have to look elsewhere for jobs. To a large extent, Porter Ranch will help in that regard.”

Clarke dismissed any worries about increased pollution, saying that the city of Los Angeles “has done everything it can to see that actions are taken to comply with the state’s Environmental Air Quality Act.”

Simi Valley officials expressed concern that the Porter Ranch development may jeopardize a developer’s plans to build a regional mall in Simi Valley. The environmental impact report on the Simi Valley shopping center is expected to be completed next month. Public hearings on the project are scheduled for late fall.

Kevin Kudlow, a spokesman for Melvin Simon and Associates, the developer of the proposed 980,000- square-foot mall, said although the developer is concerned about the Porter Ranch mall, “it is not going to change our course of action.”

But Kudlow said both developers will likely be competing to attract the biggest and the best department stores for their malls.

“It’s going to be a footrace,” he said.

Porter Ranch Development Site Simi Valley officials are opposed to the recently approved Porter Ranch development because of the tremendous increase in traffic and pollution they say will be created in the area. According to the environmental impact report on the project, an additional 150,602 vehicle trips per day are expected to be generated in the surrounding area.